From Darkness Returned
by sitabethel
Summary: Yami Marik returns from the Shadows changed. After suffering the darkness himself, Marik's alter ego no longer seeks revenge, instead content to surround himself with as much light as possible and sit still. At first Ryo simply enjoys the company, enjoys that there's someone who doesn't treat him like a weakling, but things become complicated as his feelings evolve.
1. Chapter 1

_***"We're all a little weird. And life is weird. And when we find someone_  
_whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into_  
_mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love."_  
_― Robert Fulghum***_

*****AN: This will be a three chapter story. This story is a result of my ridiculous brain thinking, "ha ha, it'd be funny if Yami Marik came back from the Shadow Realm and carried a flashlight all the time because he was traumatized" and then my next thought was "wait, don't write it, wait don't write it, I was just joking so don't - crap, I've written another fic." *****

Walking home from work, Ryo wasn't surprised when he saw a man with unkempt, gold hair and garam marsala colored skin leaning against the wall in an alley near Ryo's apartment. In his gut, he already knew why he stared at Marik's alternate self; he already knew that Marik wanted the Spirit from the Ring back. Yet an equation needed to be balanced on both sides, if Marik found a spell that summoned the Spirit back from the Shadows, then there would have to be a balancing result (in this case, Marik's own darkness returning from the Shadows as well). Ryo stared at Marik's other half, arms wrapped around his own body, eyes squeezed shut, and head bowed. Would Marik even care if he knew the consequences to his magic? Probably not, it wasn't Marik's way to think things through when he wanted something. Marik's alter ego groaned as if suffering from a nightmare, still hunched and doubled-over with his back propped against the brickwork.

Because of the angle of the sun, shadows covered half his body and light covered the other half, creating two symmetrical sides. Ryo suspected that was the nature of whatever _heka_ Marik used, a spell that drew light and dark together - Ryo's darker half to Marik and vice versa. With nothing else to do, Ryo found himself swinging the dazed man's arm over his shoulders and helping Marik's other half up the stairs to Ryo's apartment.

Ryo remembered most of the Battle City events. He knew this aspect of Marik was dangerous, but at the moment Ryo could barely manage to drag his weakened companion to the apartment building. "Are you okay?" Ryo asked as they stopped in front of the door so Ryo could find his key.

Marik's doppelganger leaned against the wall. His eyelids pressed down and a pained expression consumed his face. "C-cold. I'm so cold."

"Okay, just a moment." Ryo opened the door and tried to pull his companion inside.

Marik's other half pulled away, pressing his back against the hallway wall. He opened his eyes wide, a stark, haunted lavender color. "No."

"It's my apartment. It's safe." Ryo reached out his hand.

The other Marik shook his head in a panic. "No, no more dark."

Ryo looked back into the doorway; it was dark inside. He stepped across the threshold and turned on a few lamps, also drawing the blinds up so the clear, autumn sunlight brightened the room. He went back and held out his hand. "See? It's okay now?"

He blinked purple eyes at Ryo's hand, as if he didn't know what to do. Ryo reached out, took the other Marik's arm, and led him inside. Once in the living room, not-Marik stood still, trembling. Ryo remembered he'd mentioned being cold so he took a thick quilt from his linen closet and wrapped it around not-Marik's shoulders. He walked him to the couch and sat him down. The other Marik only stared at everything, blinked at everything, as if waiting in horror for an attack.

"You're safe here." Ryo found himself repeating. "I'll make some hot tea. Would you like that?"

He looked up at Ryo. "You're the other one?"

"I'm _me_," Ryo said with a tone of finality.

"Why are you helping me? I-I sent your body . . ." his shaking intensified; he stared at the floor. "I sent you _there_, but no more. I swear. No more sacrifices to the darkness." Marik's alter ego pulled his knees into his chest and hugged them. Gooseflesh puckered across his forearms. "It's cold, and it's hungry, and I couldn't scream, and I shouldn't have sent you _there_."

Ryo knelt down, holding not-Marik's hands. "I'm here now. Everyone's back from the Shadows now, even you, so don't worry about it." He stood up, went into the kitchen, and brewed two cups of green tea.

When he returned, he noticed that not-Marik had unscrewed the lampshade off of Ryo's lamp and held it in his lap with the light shining in his eyes. Ryo took the lamp out of the other Marik's hold and he placed one cup in his hands instead, but Ryo had to help him push the mug up to his lips because he still shook.

"Are you that cold?" Ryo asked.

The other Marik looked away and Ryo realized he was that frightened. A bolt of terror ran down Ryo's spine from the revelation. To see someone as proud and as strong and as crazy as Marik's other _personality_ reduced to a broken, shaking _person_, was more unsettling that anything Ryo ever experienced while he owned the Ring.

He acted on instinct, setting the cup aside and throwing his arms around the other man. He held him in a hard embrace. His hand reached up and stroked the other Marik's spikes of hair. "It's okay. It's okay," Ryo whispered. "It's okay."

"I don't want to go back there." The other Marik's voice cracked as he made the confession in Ryo's arms.

"You won't. You're right here. You can stay with me for a little while."

"Why?"

Ryo smiled. "We're part of a matching set, aren't we? Just like _they_ are. So let's be friends, okay?"

He still trembled despite Ryo's efforts to comfort him. "Friends? I . . . don't know how."

Ryo couldn't help the soft laugh that came at the other Marik's words. "You don't have to know how. It'll just happen."

He rested his head of wild hair against Ryo's shoulder, still wrapped in Ryo's arms and the quilt. His eyelids fluttered shut and after a few moments his trembling stopped as he fell asleep. Ryo sighed and shifted the quilt so it covered both their shoulders and shut his own eyes. He felt exhausted, too tired to turn off all the lights or go to his bedroom. It was still bright outside. Ryo imagined that somewhere in Egypt their other selves were also falling asleep – drained from strange magic and whatever incantations Marik used to pull both darker halves back from the Shadows.

Marik's doppelganger felt warm curled against Ryo's chest. Ryo sighed again and succumbed to the weariness clouding his thoughts. They fell asleep with all of the lights on.

* * *

Ryo didn't wake up until the next morning when the alarm clock beside his bed screeched and whined. He sat up with a start, confused and wondering why he was on the couch and why he felt such odd contentment. The answer to both thoughts still lay in Ryo's arms. Marik's alter stared around the room as if he still didn't trust it. Ryo realized that he felt content because it was the first time in a while that he'd been with another person without feeling nervous. Whenever he saw his old friends, awake from their comas, he felt guilty; whenever he saw his new friends, Yugi and the others, he felt chaperoned, as if he were their feeble, baby brother instead of their equal. He didn't have to worry about his past with Marik's alter ego, (and Ryo knew he needed to think of him as something better than that, but Ryo didn't know how else to think of him).

"What's that horrible noise?" Marik's other self asked.

"The alarm clock." Ryo forced himself to standing and stumbled to his bedroom to silence the shrill alarm. "Sorry," he called into the living room. "I need to take a shower. I'll be out in fifteen minutes and then I'll make breakfast."

Once Ryo was cleaned and dressed, he toasted bread and covered the slices with jam. He found his new roommate still sitting on the couch and once again holding the naked lamp up to his face. Ryo took the lamp away again and returned it to its end table. "Stop that. You'll hurt your eyes. Here, it's not much, but you can eat whatever you want while I'm at work."

Not-Marik stared at Ryo with a desperate expression. "I need to keep the light close."

Ryo frowned; he couldn't remember his time in the Shadow Realm very well. All he remembered was a stranger in a scarlet cloak and a white, glowing creature – like a guardian angel – protecting them. He realized that, alone, Marik's twin had a different experience. Whatever happened to the abandoned portion of Marik's soul was horrible enough to leave scars much deeper than the ones poxing his back – horrible enough to reduce a murderous personification of hatred and anger into someone content to sit on a sofa and stare at a lamp. Ryo couldn't bare it.

Ryo went into the kitchen and pulled open a drawer in which he stored random items. He pulled a flashlight from the drawer and brought it to his new roommate. "Here." Ryo put the object into Not-Marik's hands. "Slide this up and there's light, but don't shine it in your face."

Marik's other half looked up at Ryo as if he'd just been rescued. "I can use this all I want?"

Ryo nodded. "You can have it. So you never have to be in the dark. I'll pick up more batteries on my way home from work."

He stared at the flash light, caressed the plastic case as if it were living.

Ryo found himself slipping his fingers through the other's hair. "I have to go to work. I'll be home after three."

Not-Marik jumped to his feet and clung to Ryo. "Don't leave."

Ryo stumbled back with the impact of Marik's other self crashing into him. "I have to. It's Friday, so I'll be home for the weekend after today. You have to let go." Ryo tried to pry the tanned fingers away from his shoulders.

"You can't," he begged. "What if I go back to the Dark?"

"I promise, you won't." Ryo succeeded in freeing himself. "I'll see you when I get home." Ryo almost bent forward and kissed the other Marik's forehead as a comforting reflex, but he caught himself before he did it, realizing it would be silly, and ran out the door with a pink blush on his pale cheeks.

He worked at the Museum. It made his father happy and Ryo never thought of anything better to do. Throughout the two years he'd worked there, Ryo kept in contact with Ishizu – it often came in handy for each of them when they wanted to do various exhibits. Two seemingly innocent emails later, Ryo had a phone number in which to contact Marik. He didn't plan to, but wanted the option available in case it became necessary.

Time passed slow and tedious. Ryo felt anxious to get back home and check on his companion. Did he know how to cook? If he got too frightened would he get violent? What if something _did_ go wrong with the spell Marik used and both their darker halves went back to the Shadows? Could they get them back? Ryo blinked at his thoughts, realizing how much he didn't want to be separated from Marik's other aspect. It'd only been a day, but Ryo felt at ease beside him. His new companion was the only person that looked at Ryo as if he wasn't weak and that feeling reminded Ryo of a drug, something he wanted more and more of.

When the end of his shift arrived, Ryo ran out the door and jogged home instead of walked. He only stopped to get the batteries he'd promised Not-Marik. When inside the apartment, Ryo froze beside the door at the sight of his new roommate. The window cast a long rectangle of light onto the carpet and his companion sat in the center of it, holding the flashlight into his chest as if he could press the light inside himself. Ryo also noticed that ever single light and lamp in the apartment was on – he even left the microwave and fridge doors open so that the lights inside them stayed lit. Ryo shut his front door and then shut the fridge door, sure that everything inside would need disposed of.

"Um . . ." Ryo wanted to call out a name, but only _Marik_ came to mind and he didn't want to use that title. "Hey, I'm home."

"When the sun goes down, it'll be dark outside."

"But not in here."

"I can keep the lights on? Always?"

"Some of them. You don't really need all of them."

"Yes I do."

Ryo looked around the apartment, wondering what he could do to cheer up his roommate. A thought crossed his mind and Ryo went to his extra room where he kept his games. He took his Duel Monster cards and brought them to the living room. "You play, right? Want a game before I make dinner? Or maybe I'll order dinner. Keep the fridge closed from now on, okay?"

His roommate looked up and noticed the cards in Ryo's hand. Tears started rolling across his dark cheeks and his lips sagged into a frown. "Please. No."

The cards fell from Ryo's hands when he noticed the other man's tears. They landed in a lop-sided fan shape on the carpet. Ryo scooped the slips of paper back into his hands and hid them, running back to his companion and crashing down to the floor so he could hold him again. "I'm sorry. I didn't think . . . I'm very sorry."

"You're made of light."

"What?" Ryo asked, confused by the statement.

The other Marik combed Ryo's hair, the milk-white strands glowing from sunlight. "It's all around you," he answered.

"You're glowing, too."

"I . . . can't be. I'm made of dark."

"Well you are." Ryo gave a single spike of hair a playful tug. "Each section looks like a sun ray shooting out from your head."

More tears washed down his cheeks, but he didn't vocally sob. "Really?"

"Yes."

"How did I get here? With you instead of the Shadows?"

Ryo sighed, opting to tell the truth, though he didn't know for a fact that it was the truth. "Your other side used magic to save my other side from the Shadows and it also brought you here to me."

"Because we're part of a matching set? Just like _they_ are?"

"Yes."

"And I can stay here? With you, in the light?"

"Yes."

"And we're friends, even though I don't know how?"

Ryo looked at his companion with dark, espresso eyes, touching his companion's cheek. "Yes."

* * *

They ordered take-out noodles for dinner and afterward his new roommate took a shower. By the time he reappeared in the living room, it was dark outside. Ryo went up to the other Marik and held his hand. "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"Outside, to the roof, I want to show you something."

The other Marik held his flashlight and used the beam to guide them down the halls. "I don't like hallways."

"We're almost there."

His roommate's eyes zipped from left to right and his breathing quickened. He growled, jerking his hand out of Ryo and turning around. "Forget this, I'm going back."

"Marik!" Ryo yelled. The other man flinched at the name and Ryo hung his head down, his expression guilty and sad. "I'm sorry, I was trying not to call you that since you're separate now."

The knuckles holding his flashlight on Not-Marik's hand were so white that it looked like the bone peaked through the skin. He clenched his jaw. "It doesn't matter what you call me."

Ryo pursed his lips in thought. "It's because of when you were one Marik and lived in a tomb. That's why you hate the hallways, isn't it? I'm sorry." He looked up at his companion and gestured to the door a few feet down the hall. "We can go back if the hallway is too frightening for you."

The other Marik's purple eyes grew jewel-bright with rage, he clenched his teeth even as he growled at Ryo. "_I_ am _not _frightened. I'm the one that had to deal with the tomb when _he_ was too frightened, when _he_ was too weak to handle it. Me. _Me_!" He marched past Ryo and threw the door open, marching up the stairs, flashlight still in hand. "Just because I don't _like_ it doesn't mean I'm scared!"

Ryo jogged behind him to catch up. "I – I didn't mean . . ."

They ended up on the roof. Not Marik held out his hands and turned in a circle. "We're here. Why?"

"Um, well." Ryo sighed. "I just thought, that maybe." He sighed again without finishing a complete thought. Ryo hugged himself and looked away. "I'm really sorry."

"Why am I here?" Not-Marik still had his jaw clenched as his hands gripped the flashlight.

Ryo's eyes flicked out at the city below them. "I just thought you'd like to see all the lights."

"What?" the other Marik asked, but some of the fury drained from his face as his eyes went out to the city below them.

Ryo gestured below. "Look, between the streetlights, traffic lights, cars, and other buildings, it's never dark in Domino City. Even at night there's always something glowing, shining, lit up."

Marik's other half walked beside Ryo, looking at him instead of the streetlights below. Ryo felt the gaze at turned his head to look back at his roommate. He shrugged offering a sad smile. "It was the best I could think of – I wanted to make you feel better." Ryo looked up. "And there's also the stars. The city lights fade them, but you can still see some of them twinkling"

Ryo's smile changed from a wistful, upturn of lips to a full, bright expression when he felt his friend's hand slip into his own. As he held Ryo's hand, Not-Marik stared at the stars that stretched endless in the sky and at the electric lights that bunched past the horizon. After they star gazed for a moment, Ryo lead them back to their apartment so they could lay down and rest. They nested beside each other on Ryo's bed. The light in the center of the ceiling shined on them as did two small lamps on Ryo's night stands; Not-Marik also removed the shades from these lamps so their light covered more area.

Ryo stared at the ceiling, feeling his companion's body shift while he breathed. "My sister hated the dark, too. I'd always wake up in the middle of the night with her curled up beside me, holding a flashlight just like you are now."

"Ishizu doesn't fear anything . . . except me. Do you get along with your sister?"

"You would have thought we were sown together. We often played outside, in the sunlight. I'd pick flowers for her and we'd sing silly rhymes that'd make her laugh." Ryo stopped speaking; he swallowed, eyes glassy and shining.

The room sat quiet until Marik's alter ego whispered, "you're speaking in past tense."

"Yes. I am."

Silence again. Marik shifted a little closer to Ryo. "We couldn't go outside, but the women would dye cloth with henna or turmeric and once I collected the scraps and made a hair wreath for Ishizu with cloth flowers."

"How old were you?" Ryo asked, blinking his eyes.

"Seven."

Ryo realized that at seven it was technically Marik's memory, but since both Mariks were one child before their initiation, it made sense that they'd have the same memories before they broke into two minds. Ryo exhaled a breath of relief. He'd been trying to force himself to think of his friend as a nine-year-old (Marik being nineteen). However, it was hard to do so when his companion's body looked carved out of hard, desert-weathered, Egyptian stone and his lips were shaped like a plump, dusty-pink heart. If the other Marik remembered everything before the initiation, then he was Ryo's age mentally as well as physically; therefore, Ryo didn't have to worry about casting an occasional, admiring glance at his new roommate.

Ryo turned his head to do just that, enjoying the view of his companion's broad face and wilderness of hair. "I'm really glad you're here," Ryo confessed. "It's nice to have someone around to talk to."

His companion nestled the flashlight in the crook of his arm, lighting up the head board behind them, and took Ryo's egg-shell white hand. He rubbed his fingertips over the thick matting of scar tissue marring Ryo's palm. "You have scars, too."

"Yes. I have lots of them, but they're not pretty."

"It doesn't matter what they look like. If you have scars, it means you survived; it means you're stronger than whoever tried to hurt you."

Ryo blinked, never expecting to hear something that philosophical from Marik's other half. His companion looked up and met Ryo's eyes. Ryo realized he was staring and averted his gaze. "Do you want to see the rest?" he asked.

"Of your scars?"

Ryo nodded. He wasn't sure why he offered to show them to his new roommate. Perhaps because everyone objectified Marik through his scars. Ryo figured that it might be comforting for this Marik to be the one to look at scars for a change.

He frowned. "You don't have to."

"It's okay." Ryo pulled off his shirt and lay back down.

He noticed his companion staring at his chest, the entirety of it, and Ryo looked away, feeling too pale and self-conscious. When the other Marik reached out his hand – the one not holding the flashlight – and touched Ryo's chest, the air hitched in Ryo's throat. Ryo held his breath. He hadn't meant to react to his roommate's touch. The other Marik's coarse fingertips examined each of the five twisted knots below Ryo's sternum.

Ryo glanced back over to look at his roommate's face, noticing again the thickness of his companion's bottom lip, the slight clef in his chin, and the length of his eyelashes. Marik's other half moved away from Ryo's chest and studied the worse of his scars, the one on his arm. "Do they ever itch? Mine do."

"Sometimes. Usually in the winter when the weather is really dry." Ryo ran his own fingers across the scar on his arm. The tips of his fingers brushed against the other Marik's fingers as they touched the raised tissue at the same time.

"I think the Spirit caught more nerves with this one. Most days it's fine, but sometimes it still feels like the knife's inside the skin and all I can do is grin and bare it."

Ryo's companion nodded his head. "The skin on my back doesn't stretch right when I move, especially around my shoulders." He grinned, a hint of the old, deranged Dark Marik lingered in the expression, but Ryo found the grin endearing to look at. "Marik doesn't let anyone know, but that's one of the reasons he always preferred controlling others with the Rod. That way he could stand back and look powerful, when really something as simple as lifting an object from the ground can be uncomfortable for us to do."

Ryo held up his left hand. "I drop things a lot now thanks to this one. I'm just glad it was this hand. I can forgive a lot of things, but if that bastard would have hurt my right hand to where I couldn't craft Monster World figurines, then I would have hated him."

"You don't now? I mean hate him."

Ryo shrugged. "I'm glad he lost, in the end, but I'm also glad Marik brought him back. No one belongs in the Shadows." Ryo smiled and looked at his roommate. "And because Marik brought him back, you're here. Now we each have someone to rub lotion on our scars when they itch."

His friend's eyes widened. "Really? You'd do that for me?"

Ryo chuckled. "Sure, what are friends for?"

Marik's other half smirked. "Whenever I want?"

Ryo was mostly teasing; he didn't expect Marik's better half to ever take Ryo up on his offer, so he nodded his head to agree. Ryo's mouth dropped when he noticed Not-Marik removing his black tank top and turn his back to Ryo. Ryo licked his lips at the sight of his roommate half naked, earthy skin gleaming from the lights. Ryo reached over and took lotion from his nightstand drawer (trying not the think about why he had lotion in that particular drawer). He warmed the cream in his hands before spreading it across spiced-colored skin. His companion leaned into Ryo's touched and exhaled. Ryo bit his lip to prevent himself from bending forward and kissing the nape of his roommate's neck. He'd meant for the sentiment of a back-rub to be friendly, but he was nineteen and this was the first time his hands ever glided across another person's bare flesh. A jolt of excitement coursed through Ryo's body as he explored his roommate's shoulders with timid, circular stroke of his thumbs.

His roommate's soft, content sighs and the way he shifted and relaxed under Ryo's fingers didn't help. Ryo couldn't stop the daydreams assaulting his imagination. He wanted to wrap his arms around his companion, pinch his nipples, guide his touch below the other Marik's belt line. Instead, he focused on the area around the shoulders and shoulder blades, where Not-Marik had mentioned the skin felt the tightest.

After a few minutes, the better Marik leaned closer and pressed his back against Ryo's chest. "You're the first one to ever touch my scars. The initiation marked my back as a possession of the Pharaoh's, so no one was allowed to touch it. Even the servants who dressed my wounds had to be careful not to actually touch the skin or _al walib _would punish them."

Ryo wrapped his arms around his companion's stomach to embrace him. His earlier fantasies set-aside as Ryo rested his chin on the crook of his roommate's neck and shoulder to comfort him. "That's horrible."

"He had a knife," Marik's other aspect whispered, rocking oh-so-slightly as he spoke. "He had a knife and he was going to hurt me again. My first memories of being someone _separate _were of that knife and of that pain and I couldn't – I couldn't – I couldn't – bastard wasn't allowed to hurt me anymore. _I stopped it and I was happy, _and if that makes me a monster then I like being a monster."

Ryo realized he wasn't breathing and forced a shaky breath into his lungs. "I . . ." Ryo wanted to say something, but what do you say to someone who killed his father at eleven because he didn't want to be tortured again? Ryo held his roommate harder as if his empathy could be transferred and understood through their skin.

"And then the Power of the Shadows seeped into me from the Rod. Into us, Marik and me, but he only tasted it. I drank it like fresh kefir and grew stronger and stronger until I was able to take control." He shook his head. "I used to love the dark, but when I was banished I wasn't useful, so the Power left and those Shadows eat you from the inside out and you can't scream, and it's dark – _pure dark_ – no sounds, no sight, no scents, only the the feeling of infinite needle-teeth eating."

The noise sounded dry at first, almost rusty, but then something broke in the other Marik's throat and proper sobs escaped his mouth. He cried in Ryo's arms and Ryo felt panicked to stop his companion from suffering. He shifted on the mattress so that he faced the other Marik, half sitting in his lap. Ryo held his companion's face, watching the tears slid down his cheeks and drip down his chin.

"I'm here. I'm right here," Ryo whispered. He bent forward and kissed his companion's eyelids and cheeks, trying to kiss the tears away. "Right here."

Marik's alter ego held Ryo's wrists as Ryo held his face. His tears ebbed and his breathing changed to sighs as Ryo kissed his tears from his cheeks. When the other Marik's tears stopped, Ryo laid down and allowed the other Marik to used Ryo's chest as a pillow. Ryo held him tight, tight enough to let the darker aspect of Marik know nothing could pull him away from Ryo's hold. A final, shuddering sigh shook from the other Marik's lips before he settle exhausted against Ryo's scared chest. They fell asleep with all the lights on.

*****AN: "al walib" is Arabic for father (according to whatever random translator I found on Google at the time). Not that it's important, but for writing nerds that like to hear about why the author does something - I chose to the Arabic title for father because it would tie him a little closer to Yami Marik (because Yami Marik, as a character, chose to use his native language to address his father. It shows the complexity between Yami Marik's feelings.) At the same time, the foreign sound of it would distance us, the readers, from Marik's father, because he's not his "father" he's a jumble of sounds that we don't necessarily understand.*****


	2. Chapter 2

*****AN: Why Kek? In this fic, Ryo names Yami Marik "Kek" because kek is gaming-orcish for lol (Urban Dictionary ftw); however, Kek (Kuk, or Keku) is also one of the oldest Egyptian gods. A deity of primordial darkness, of the darkness and chaos that reigned before creation, so it's very IC for Yami Marik. But there's another important symbolic element to the deity Kek that I ADORE when it comes to Yami Marik on his own and in Deathshipping. Kuk had both a masculine and feminine aspect, and the masculine half was specifically that last moment of darkness before the break of dawn. He's even considered the "Bringer-in of the Light" This is very symbolically canon when you consider the manga. I love Marik, but he's a jerk, and it isn't until Yami Marik takes over that the "light" of Marik's character shows itself at all. Thus, Yami Marik "Brings the light" out of the Marik persona. Also, as far as Deathshipping goes, I think he and Ryo would be that shared moment of night and dawn - and not just to stereotype Kek as night and Ryo as morning, and think it's more like they're both that shared moment where one becomes the other but both exist - so it becomes a lovely symbol of both their characters. That's why I adopted Kek as a name in so many of my fics, and I'm really glad Miss Macabre Grey Christened him thus (she was the first person to use Kek for Yami Marik). **

** (source: egyptian-gods [it's . org but ff net won't let me post the link, of course, but it's easy to find info on google for Kuk] egyptian-gods-kuk/)*****

The next day they took a train to a nearby city to go shopping. Ryo wanted to avoid anyone who'd recognize the other Marik. Ryo wasn't sure how Not-Marik would react to other people, but the former psychopath was content to stand close to Ryo and observe his environment as one prepared to attack but who wouldn't unless provoked.

Pants were easy, khakis and jeans, but shirts were a little more difficult. His new friend only wanted tank tops and other sleeveless shirts, but it was early autumn and Ryo knew he'd want something warmer in winter. He suggested a few sweaters, but his companion refused. "They'd itch."

Ryo sighed, realizing why his friend didn't want sleeves or to wear wool. They compromised by purchasing several hoodies and one thick coat. His roommate lifted up a dark violet blazer from a wrack. It looked nice, but casual enough to where with jeans or khakis. "Can I get this, too?"

Ryo nodded, but a facetious smile touched his lips. "Purple, that's very Marik, don't you think?"

He scowled at Ryo. "No, because it doesn't have sequins." He slammed the cloth into the cart.

Ryo bought a few new outfits as well. He had the money for it, but he never worried with his appearance, until now. Now he suddenly had the desire to look a little nicer.

They went to a hardware store. There, Ryo purchased three more flashlights. He also bought a key-chain l.e.d. light and a small flashlight that came with a cord to hand around the neck. As soon as they left the store, Ryo took the last flashlight from it's package and wrapped it around his friend's neck. "There. Now you can have both hands free, but still carry a light with you no matter where you go."

His friend's grin was a huge slice of teeth and mouth stretched across his face. With a knife in his hand, Marik's better half would look terrifying. Ryo supposed that even with shopping bags in his hands he still might look terrifying to others, but Ryo thought he looked cute. They had takoyaki for lunch and cone-rolled crepes filled with strawberries and whipped cream.

"We'll have to buy more groceries tomorrow," Ryo said.

"I'm sorry I made the food go bad."

"Don't worry about it." Ryo smiled. He wondered what Marik and the Spirit would think, if they could see Ryo standing on the street and eating sweets with the deranged personality that destroyed them with the fire of Ra. What would they think, if they could hear the same individual apologize for making a mistake.

Lost in thoughts, Ryo didn't notice his companion reaching out a hand until a finger brushed against the corner of Ryo's mouth. Ryo froze at the other Marik's touch.

He smiled at Ryo. "You got whip cream on your face." He absentmindedly licked his finger, and Ryo could only stand and blink warm, coffee eyes at the man standing in front of him.

"Thanks," Ryo managed after a moment.

"What are friends for?" He winked at Ryo, repeating the phrase Ryo used last night before he rubbed the other Marik's back.

They took the train back home with their impressive collection of bags. They talked about unimportant things. Ryo was surprised, and delighted, to discover that they both had a passion for foreign food – Ryo more on the cooking end and his roommate more on the consuming end, but that worked, didn't it? Though Marik controlled their body during his travels as Leader of the Ghouls, his other half absorbed all the experiences as well. More often than not, the preferences created by those experiences varied. For example, Marik enjoyed champagne and foie gras, food that represented power and station. His better half, on the other hand, loved food from carts and street vendors.

"Who the hell cares about a bunch of stuffy assholes eating two bites of food? Why would he pay so much to still be hungry? The local places are where they make the real food. Food with personality and flavor, and you're so stuffed by the end that you just want to lay back and sleep it off afterward."

"The best dishes are peasant dishes anyway," Ryo agreed. "They had to be creative to make the scraps taste good."

"Ever had gyros? We were in Greece, and never had time to eat, so he'd have to stop by this place near the hotel. You wouldn't believe the food." Marik's better half rolled his eyes a bit with longing from the memory.

Ryo gave him a playful slap on his bicep. "Shut-up, you're making my mouth water."

"Lamb so tender that if you didn't hold it right, it'd fall on your shoes."

"Seriously, unless you want to take me to Greece and have me home in time for work Monday morning, you better stop talking."

"And the _Tzatziki_."

Now Ryo held his friend's bicep and leaned into him, laughing. "No, no more. This is torture, you monster."

"Yup." He gave Ryo another lunatic's grin.

Ryo couldn't stop smiling. "Good thing for you I like monsters and scary things."

"Because we're part of a matching set."

Ryo straighten back upright, realizing how he was hanging onto him a little too close for friends.

Ryo didn't notice the doors open from one car to the next, or the three younger teenagers walk past them. One of the three tugged at Ryo's hair as he walked by. "What's up with your hair? Are you a girl or something?"

His first instinct was to worry about what the Spirit would do, but Ryo shook the thought out of his head because that was no longer a problem. Before Ryo could decide how to feel, angry or embarrassed or afraid, the other Marik's fist connected to the punk's nose. He recoiled from the impact, blood exploding across his face. The other two ran to the next car.

The representation of Marik's anger stepped closer to the kid holding his bleeding nose. The punk shrieked and stumbled over several seats in order to escape. Ryo surveyed the car, there were no other passengers, but he still worried about cameras. Marik's alter ego walked towards the next train car. Ryo grabbed his arm to hold him back. "Don't!" he pleaded.

Not-Marik, turned to face Ryo. The anger in his lavender eyes hard and final. "Why not? Nobody hurts you. _Nobody_."

"I'm not hurt," Ryo insisted. "But if you go after him, you'll be just like the Spirit with his stupid penalty games, and that will piss me off." Ryo ground his teeth with the memory – _but yadonushi, I'm only paying my rent._ Ryo shook the memory away. "Besides, do you have _any_ idea how hard it is to get bloodstains out of clothes? I do! I didn't just spend all this money on new clothes for you to cover your old ones in blood."

His companion stood still for a moment. The anger in his features settled into a deranged amusement. His lips slit open in a smile then ripped open wide so he could laugh. Ryo stood and watched him laugh. The Spirit's laugh had been a deep, sardonic _kukuku_, it had a way of criticizing it's subject without him having to ever say a word. But Marik's other half's laughter was loud and reverberating, manic yet wholly gleeful all at once. It was a vibrant, golden _kekeke_, something that lost itself between a childish giggle and a proper, villainous cackle. It complimented his friend well.

Ryo set his bags down, his _kekeke'ing_ friend's bags scattered on the ground, and set his hand on his companion's chest. "That's the first time I've heard you truly laugh since you've been back."

He settled his hand on top of Ryo's fingers and grinned, staring at Ryo as they finished their ride home.

* * *

Ryo tossed from one pillow to the other. He felt his companion's broad hand light on his shoulder. "Ryo? What's wrong?"

Ryo winced. He wasn't asleep, but he didn't want to open his eyes either. "I can't sleep. There are too many lights in the room."

"But the light's good."

Ryo squinted his eyes opened and sighed. "Yeah, Kek, I know, but it's hard to sleep with them all shining in my face.

His roommate tilted his head to the left. "What did you call me?"

Ryo had to think about the question; he was still half asleep. "I . . . uh, nothing really, I'm just tired."

"But what was that word? I don't know it."

"It's not really a word, it's like lol."

"What?"

Ryo sighed, opening his eyes all the way and looking at his friend's confused stare. "Laughing out loud. Kek is short for when the monsters laugh in a game."

"So why did you call me that?" he asked, his voice curious.

"I was half asleep."

"But why did you choose that? Because I'm a monster?"

Ryo frowned. "No. You're only a monster when you make me hungry, otherwise you're my friend."

He smiled at the joke, but continued to question Ryo. "Then why?"

Ryo surrendered, exhaling. "Because the way you laughed this afternoon. It got stuck in my head, and I don't want to call you _Other Marik_, so it's just want came out of my mouth."

"So it's . . . a name?"

"I mean, I'll call you whatever you want."

He smiled. "Will you call me Kek?"

Ryo wrinkled his nose. "Don't you want something better?"

His companion wrapped his arms around Ryo and squeezed him. "I want to be Kek, because you're the first one that's ever acknowledged me as _me._"

Ryo graced his fingers through Kek's hair. "Hey, Kek?"

He lifted his face close to Ryo's. "Yes, Ryo?"

"Can we turn at least one light off?"

He frowned, bottom lip out-thrust from the rest of his mouth. "I . . ."

Ryo sighed, closing his eyes again. "I'm sorry. That was selfish of me to ask. Never mind, Kek. Goodnight."

Kek hid his face against Ryo's chest. "No, I'm selfish. I keep them on even though you can't sleep."

"It's okay, really. I'm just not used to it."

Kek slipped out of bed. Ryo sat up. "No, I'm sorry. Please don't turn them off just for me."

Kek stood by the doorway, his hand on the switch. He stood there a moment and watched Ryo. He shrugged. "I think, as long as you're here, it'll be okay with just the lamps. I have my flashlights." He flicked the switch.

The room stayed bright, but the intensity of the light softened. Kek pulled the covers back over him. He looked nervous, but snuggled against Ryo, holding his original flashlight between their bodies. "See? I'm okay."

Ryo ran his fingers through Kek's hair again. "Are you sure?"

Kek thought about it for a moment, looking around the room. He nodded. "Yeah, I'm really okay." He nuzzled himself into Ryo's chest. "Goodnight, Ryo."

Ryo continued petting his hair, already falling asleep. "Goodnight, Kek."

They fell asleep with almost all the lights on.

* * *

After a few weeks, Kek replaced the lamp shades and turned the lights off. He kept the ceiling lights on and if he had to walk down the apartment hallway he used his flashlight, despite the fact that it wasn't really dark in the hall just less lit. While Ryo worked, Kek still spent his days sitting in the squares of sunlight provided by the apartment windows. In the evenings they played games, anything except Duel Monsters.

One day Kek got into Ryo's modeling clay, and when Ryo came home from work he saw Kek sitting in his square of light surrounded by figurines of the gods that he'd crafted. Ryo knelt on one knee and picked up a statue of Sekhmet. "These are incredible."

Kek shrugged, his fingers covered in excess clay. "I used to make things when I was a kid, but _al walib_ would only allow it if my figures honored the gods or pharaohs."

"What would you like to make?"

Kek looked up at Ryo as if the question startled him. "I . . . don't know. I never thought about what I'd want to make."

"We can go shopping this weekend for more clay."

"Okay." Kek grinned. He scratched the back of his head. "I got clay in my hair, will you help me wash it out?"

Ryo laughed. "How did you get it in your hair?"

Kek shrugged, the grin on his face expanding.

Ryo sighed. "Okay, but you have too much hair for the sink, so I guess we'll have to wash it in the tub."

Kek jumped up, but his foot almost landed on one of his gods so he had to re-step, losing balance and clinging to Ryo.

"Oh." Ryo gasped as he found himself pressed chest to chest against Kek. Ryo tried his best to ignore the sensation because the innocent-enough crush he developed for Kek was starting to become a problem. Ryo blamed himself, during those first days he'd constantly cuddled and petted Kek to reassure and sooth him. Now that Kek felt more comfortable, Ryo tried to back off with the close physical contact, but Kek seemed to respond to the distance with a doubled effort to keep them continuously pressed together. Ryo assumed that Kek associated the behavior with their friendship. Hugging Kek would be fine if every brush of Kek's fingers against Ryo's skin didn't make Ryo want stick his tongue into Kek's mouth.

"Thanks Ryo, it'd be bad luck to smash Horus, right?"

"Let's get that clay out of your hair."

"Okay." Kek hooked his arm around Ryo's arm and escorted him to the bathroom. Kek stood an inch from Ryo, stripping his shirt off to prevent it from getting wet. "How was work?"

"Kinda boring, but not bad." Ryo tried to repressed his thoughts as Kek knelt in front of the tub and bent forward. Kek's jeans hugged the curves of his backside and his back muscles flexed. It didn't help that Ryo had to lean doubled over him to lather his hair.

"You should take off your shirt as well. I don't want to get it wet," Kek said.

"No, uh, it's fine."

"Are you sure? I think you should take it off to be safe."

"I'll take a shower after dinner and then change into pajamas."

"Oh . . . okay then."

The conversation died as Ryo rinsed the suds out of Kek's deranged hair. When they finished, Kek fluffed his spikes back up with a towel. He leaned close and tilted his head towards Ryo. "Will you make sure it's all out?"

"I think we got it all, Kek."

"Yeah, but make sure."

Kek leaned forward with his head bowed, pressing Ryo against the bathroom wall. Ryo dug his right hand into Kek's hair. His left hand reached up to Kek's shoulder. "It's clean."

Kek tilted his head up, smiling close to Ryo's face. "Thanks."

Ryo averted his eyes. Kek stood too close again; his breath tickled Ryo's cheek and made it hard for Ryo to keep from turning his head so their lips could _accidentally_ brush together. "Dinner?"

"Huh?" Kek asked.

"I need to start dinner."

Kek tilted his head so that Ryo faced him again. "Do we get to chop things?"

Ryo laughed a little, though it did almost brush their lips together because Kek didn't seem to have a sense of personal space. "Yeah."

"Okay, let's go." Kek pulled Ryo by the arm into the kitchen. He didn't like cooking in general, but loved anything that required cutting.

Ryo had a respectable knife collection and Kek kept each cleaned and sharpened for him. While Ryo took out noodles and pressed tofu from the fridge to prepare the udon and abura-age, Kek took the usuba knife and began slicing cucumbers and carrots. Ryo loved watching him, the quick wrists flicks and the perfect strips of cucumbers and carrots, thin as matchsticks. He chopped scallions to garnish the soup.

Kek took a discarded cucumber slice and held it up to Ryo's mouth. "Eat this."

Ryo opened his mouth and Kek pushed the cucumber against his tongue, dragging his fingers as he pulled back so that Ryo tasted Kek's skin and the cucumber at the same time and felt Kek's fingers pull against his bottom lip. Ryo moaned a little from the experience. Kek raised a gold eye brow as he placed another piece of extra cucumber into his own mouth, sucking his fingers a bit as he pulled them out of his mouth. "Good, right?" he asked.

Ryo chewed and swallowed. He turned back to his soup and nodded, hoping Kek didn't notice Ryo's flushed face. If he did, he didn't comment on it. They ate dinner and played shogi until Kek dropped his head on Ryo's lap and looked up at him. "I'm getting tired. Shouldn't we lie down?"

Ryo brushed a stray bang from Kek's forehead. "You don't have to wait on me, you know."

This time Kek averted his eyes. "I know, it's just . . . I sleep better when you're near."

Ryo sighed and wondered what the hell he'd been thinking the first time they slept in the same bed. His fingers fell from Kek's forehead to his cheekbone, tracing the contour of Kek's cheek. Kek's eyes looked back at Ryo. He lowered his lids; his lips parted. Ryo's fingers drew dangerously close to Kek's mouth and Ryo started to bend down. A moment before it was too late, he stopped himself and pulled his hand away. "All right. Let's go to sleep."

Kek grinned, but it looked strained. "Gonna read me a bed time story?"

Ryo nudged Kek off his lap and stood. He went into the bathroom to brush his teeth while Kek changed to pajamas in the bedroom. Ryo wore a full set of pj's, but Kek would only wear the bottoms because he hated cloth on his back. Ryo walked into the bedroom. They were down to one lamp, three night lights, and Kek's flashlight – his first one, not the one hanging from his neck. He noticed Kek standing in front of the bed frowning and scratching behind his shoulder. "Hey, Ryo?"

He didn't have to ask; Ryo already knew what Kek wanted. What Ryo wanted was to tackle Kek into the mattress, massage his back, then rip off his pants, (because there's nothing better than a happy ending), but he settled for grabbing the lotion and gesturing for Kek to lay down. He doctored each scar with lotion and gentle strokes of his fingers. Afterward, Ryo found himself rubbing Kek's shoulders just to have an excuse to touch them. Kek sighed and shifted onto the bed. His eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks and he didn't seem to mind the fact that Ryo was no longer ameliorating his scars but instead giving him a regular back-rub. After his neck and shoulders, Ryo moved down to Kek's ribs and then to his hips and lower back. Ryo hooked his thumbs under the waistband of Kek's pants.

"Mmmm, don't stop," Kek whispered.

The gravely, whispered command sent a jolt up and then back down Ryo's stomach. He dug his fingers a little harder into Kek's sides.

Kek shifted a little against the mattress. "I'm really tight in my lower back . . . could you get a inch lower?"

Ryo bit his lip as he slid his fingers just below Kek's belt line. Kek grunted as Ryo's fingers pressed into his lower spine, content. After a few minutes Kek sprang up and grabbed Ryo's shoulders, tossing him down to the mattress. "You're turn." Kek unbuttoned Ryo's pajama top.

"Wait, what are you—"

Instead of sitting on the side as Ryo had done, Kek swung his leg over and straddled Ryo. "I'll put lotion on your scars now."

Ryo tried to breath without hyperventilating. Kek sat in the precise spot Ryo'd prefer him not to sit at the moment, and his pj's were no where thick enough to cover the evidence of how much Ryo enjoyed giving Kek his massage. Then again, by the same logic Kek seemed to have enjoyed his massage just as much. The question still remained – did Kek think this was just being friendly, or did he understand that they were starting to tilt into _more-than-friends_ territory? Trapped in a tomb, seeking revenge, then banished to Shadows, Kek's whole life was one of pain and strife and isolation. Ryo knew that his apartment was the first stable environment Kek every truly had, and he couldn't risk doing something stupid that would make Kek feel uncomfortable.

But all Ryo's platonic thoughts evaporated from his mind when Kek chuckled and twirling his pointer finger around Ryo's right nipple. "Even your nipples are pale."

Kek pinched the barely pink bud and Ryo called out much louder than he wanted to. Ryo held his breath for a second then hissed, "Kek, stop that."

Kek tilted his head. "Oh? Did that hurt?"

Ryo pursed his lips, trying to decide how to answer. "No, but It's rude to pinch people."

Kek huffed a irritated breath out of his mouth. He sat there, still straddled on Ryo. He looked like he was trying to think. Ryo opened his mouth to suggest they go to sleep, but before he could speak, Kek slid off of him and forced Ryo to roll on his stomach, pulling the rest of his shirt off. "I'll get your back, now."

"But I don't have any scars on my back."

"I know, but you gave me a back-rub, too. I need to be polite and give you one in return."

"That's okay. I should probably go to sleep. I have to work in the morning."

"A back-rub will help you sleep."

Kek squirted cold lotion on Ryo's back and he gasped. Kek kneaded Ryo's back, his hand burning hot against Ryo's cool skin. "You're back's so . . . smooth."

Ryo turned his head so he could peak over his shoulder and get a side glance at Kek.

He noticed Ryo's expression and smirked, tucking a few loose strands of white hair behind Ryo's ear. He lowered his hands down to Ryo's hips.

Ryo hadn't realized when he'd rubbed Kek just how sensitive the area was until he felt warm, coarse palms moved against his lower body. Ryo squirmed, breathing heavy.

Kek tightened his legs around Ryo's body. "Stay still."

"Um, y-you should stop now."

"But I'm not finished." He dropped his hands under Ryo's pants.

Ryo grabbed the sheets, his erection growing painfully stiff as Kek worked his hands lower. "That, aah, that, mmm, that tickles!" Ryo shouted out the first excuse that came to mind.

"Tickles?" Kek asked in a frustrated voice.

"Yes it does." It didn't, but Ryo wasn't going to admit it. "I'm extra ticklish."

"Really?" Kek grabbed Ryo's ribs.

"Really!" Ryo screamed as he kicked his feet. This time it did tickle, though it caused a strange mix of wanting to giggle and wanting to moan.

Ryo's breathy, near desperate giggles only spurred Kek to tickle harder. Instinct took over and Ryo kicked his feet and bucked against Kek like an untamed mustang. He managed to tumble them both onto the carpet, landing on top. Now Ryo straddled Kek, he held Kek's arms over the halo of yellow hair to keep them away from Ryo's ribs. "Enough of that." Ryo panted, out of breath, his face flushed and his temples flecked with sweat-drops.

"I can't kill people on the train. I can't tickle you. What _can_ I do?"

Ryo smiled, leaning forward. "Sleep."

Kek sat up, though Ryo had him pinned. Ryo ended up in Kek's lap with his legs splayed out behind him. Ryo still held Kek's wrists, but Kek moved his arms to where they rested between the two of them. "I'd rather torture you some more."

"I think I've had all the torture I can endure for one night." Ryo meant every word.

Kek snickered. "But I haven't even gotten you to scream yet."

Ryo sat in Kek's lap and studied his bright-colored eyes. By Kek's tone, Ryo knew he wasn't being literal, but he couldn't decided if Kek's words were a joke or an innuendo. Since he couldn't make up his mind, he decided to probe further. "Yeah? How would you make me scream, Kek?"

The lips curled around his teeth in a confident grin. "By stabbing you."

"Remember, the usuba is only for vegetables."

"I've always preferred stabbing with a rod."

Anyone else and Ryo would have called innuendo easy, but Kek had a reputation for literally stabbing people with his Millennium Rod, so he couldn't tell. He wanted the answer to be innuendo so bad that Ryo didn't trust himself to make an objective call on the matter. He decided to err on the side of caution. "But the Items are gone."

Kek pushed Ryo off his lap, an angry pout on his face. "Go to sleep if you're so tired."

Was he angry because Ryo reminded him that the Rod was gone? Or was it something else? Again, Ryo wanted one answer more than the other thus didn't trust his judgment. "I'm sorry, if reminding of the Items upset you."

"Why are _you_ sorry? I brought it up." Kek crawled back onto the mattress. "It's my own damn fault."

* * *

Ryo went a little crazy at the craft store – he did every time. He bought materials for new RPG dioramas that he needed to re-stock. He also bought clay, glaze, and a small potter's wheel for Kek. He'd have to be thrifty on groceries for the rest of the month after the potter's wheel, but it was worth the look on Kek's face. Fortunately, Ryo already owned a kiln or they'd be forced to eat cupped ramen for the rest of the year.

They set the wheel in Ryo's game room where the kiln and many of Ryo's other art projects waited to be worked on. Ryo's kiln god sat on top of the oven, a foo lion-dog with a flaming mane. The next day Kek added his own beside it, a kirin. Kek grinned and gestured to the two clay figures. "They're part of a matching set."

Ryo smiled. "So they are."

Afterward, every day Ryo came home to find Kek in their project room. Kek kept the window opened and sunlight pouring in, but the other lights stayed off except a single lamp Kek needed in order to see. After several weeks, they ran out of room to store the various vases, bowls and pots Kek sculpted.

Ryo frowned at the pottery lining the walls and sitting on the floor. "I want to keep them all. They're so beautiful, but we're going to have to sleep on pottery if we don't do something."

Kek shrugged, covered in clay again. "Sell them."

"What?" Ryo asked the question as if Kek suggested they sell their children.

Kek pointed to the potter's wheel. "I could buy my own clay that way." He paused, fidgeting. "And groceries, or something. I don't want to be a bum. I'm supposed to be your friend, not your five-year-old."

Ryo opened his mouth to protest. He never thought of Kek as a bum. He never expected Kek to maintain a regular job any more than one would expect a blind-deaf-mute to do so. Though Kek acted nice to Ryo and often went grocery shopping without incident while Ryo was at work, Ryo didn't think Kek could work a normal, public job without getting angry and literally murdering a customer; therefore, Ryo accepted the responsibility of paying the bills without a second thought. However, there was no reason Kek couldn't sell his pottery online and contribute. Not so much because Ryo wanted the help, the museum paid well, but because he thought it'd be good for Kek to feel more independent.

"Well . . . I guess I can set up a web page for you to sell them."

"Good," Kek said, his tone excited. He stepped closer, nudging Ryo's side. "Wash my hair before dinner?"

Ryo rolled his eyes. For some odd reason Kek insisted that if he did it himself he wouldn't get everything. "I still don't see how you get it in your hair." Ryo eyed Kek up and down. "Then again, you have it everywhere else, so I guess it makes sense."

Kek examined his arms, the clay blended into the color of his skin. "Heh, maybe I should have you wash everything, then."

"That'd hardly be appropriate of me." Ryo dodged Kek's ambiguous teasing, just as he always did.

Kek never made a proper move, only teased and tormented Ryo. So Ryo forced himself to restrain his personal urges when Kek made jokes or tried to initiate tickle-marathons. Although Ryo found himself taking two showers a day. He told Kek it was because he got dusty at the museum, but he really needed the alone time to take care of what he couldn't in bed – made worse because Kek always nuzzled, cuddled, or spooned against Ryo in bed. And again they went through the same routine. Ryo going crazy as he reveled in the sensation of his fingers in Kek's soapy hair. Ryo going crazy as Kek had him tasting ingredients for their dinner, stuffing them into Ryo's mouth with his coarse, delicious fingers. Ryo going crazy as they massaged each other's scars. Ryo going crazy as he tried to sleep and Kek adjusted behind him, rubbing his groin into Ryo's ass in the process.

That night Ryo couldn't bare it as Kek encircled his arms around Ryo and nuzzled into the nape of Ryo's neck. He sighed, admitting it was time to stop making excuses for allowing Kek to paw over him – yes, Ryo knew Kek enjoyed the affection, but Ryo also allowed the back-rubs and cuddling because it _he _liked it, and Ryo didn't want to take advantage of Kek_._

"Kek?" Ryo whispered. A pain welled up in his chest. He didn't want things between them to stop. He wanted them to escalate, but Ryo wasn't selfish enough to try to steer events into his own self-motivated direction.

Kek's lips brushed against Ryo's neck when he answered. "Yeah, Ryo?"

Ryo shivered at the sensation. "I think we need to get separate beds."

Kek jerked up to a sitting position. "What?"

"We should get another bed."

"Why? I mean, I don't keep you awake with the lights anymore, right? I can get rid of two of the night lights if you're having trouble sleeping."

"No, it's not the light, Kek. It's just – y'know – people usually don't share one bed like we do."

"But we're friends, so it's okay."

"Well, I wouldn't sleep like this with Yugi or Honda."

"Of course not," Kek growled. "They're _only_ your friends, but we're part of a matching set."

"Always." Ryo sat up and held both Kek's hands. "Always, but I think it'd be better for _you_ if we—"

Kek shook his head no. "Don't Ryo, don't make me sleep alone."

"Kek, I promise the Shadows can't touch you anymore. Even if they did, I swear I'd fight the gods themselves to get you back."

Kek's face twisted with emotions; fear, pain, sadness, desperation, and an odd, unfamiliar helplessness that Ryo hadn't seen since Kek's first week back from the Shadows. "It's not the Shadows," Kek said. "I've always hated sleeping. It reminds me of the tomb. It reminds me of . . . of . . . of dying. _He_ doesn't remember, but during my initiation I was _dying_. Everything went black behind my eyelids and I couldn't feel my heartbeat, and, and I thought it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair. Why should I die for a Pharaoh who's already dead? It wasn't _right_. So I pulled together all my anger, all my hate, and I _made myself stay alive_, but then I wasn't me anymore – I was me and _him_."

Ryo grabbed Kek, clutching him hard enough to hurt. "I'm sorry, Kek. I'm sorry."

"Please, Ryo. Please let me hold you when I sleep. Just let me stay here with you."

Ryo dug his fingers into Kek's hair, pressing their foreheads together, trying to pull them as close together as possible. "Of course. I'm sorry, Kek. The _last_ thing I wanted to do was upset you. I just didn't want to put you in an inappropriate position."

"_Ryo, stop thinking of me as a child_."

"I don't."

"Yes you do, but I'm not innocent – nor stupid – nor socially inept."

"I know that." Ryo wanted to kiss Kek. His lips hurt to kiss Kek. His fingers ached because he couldn't touch Kek's lips. Not as foreplay, that's not why Ryo wanted to kiss him. He wanted to sooth and reassure Kek and kissing him felt the most natural way to do so. He almost did it, bringing his lips close enough to Kek's that he could feel the warmth permeating from beneath the thin membrane of skin covering them. Ryo exhaled over Kek's mouth, and pulled Kek into Ryo's chest as he lay them both down. An epiphany hit him; he treated Kek with the same fragile care that Yugi and the others treated him, and Kek hated the treatment as much as Ryo did. He sighed. "Okay, I'll try to stop being such a mother hen, and I'll never suggest we separate again, in any way."


	3. Chapter 3

*****AN: Citrus warning, not a full lemon (so, like a yellow-green lime?). . . I should have probably put that in the first AN, sorry.*****

He couldn't force Kek away when it was the last thing either of them wanted. His long showers continued and his own personal version of _masculine hysteria_ continued, but Ryo stopped treating Kek like a china doll. As Kek explained – they were a matching set. Ryo first said the phrase with their light/dark natures in mind compared to that of their counterparts, but he was fond at how Kek twisted the expression to mean that they were together. Ryo finally understood that everything Kek did was the other male's unique version of flirting.

Thus, the next time Kek suggested Ryo take off his shirt while washing Kek's hair, Ryo agreed and relished the way their bodies felt pressed together as his fingers tugged at each spike of hair. The next time Kek wanted to return a back-rub, Ryo agreed and didn't pretend it tickled when Kek's touch became too much and Ryo had to claw at the sheets. They had more fun that way, finding a million tiny excuses to caress or bump into each other. When Kek pushed a strawberry into Ryo's mouth, Ryo flicked his tongue up to meet Kek's fingers. When Kek spooned against him, grinding Ryo's backside as he settled; Ryo pretended to yawn and stretch so he could arch into Kek's movements. Sometimes they'd fall asleep after that. Sometimes they'd find themselves in an impromptu wrestling match that left them both breathless, sweating, and panting. The only thing missing from the experience was the release, but Ryo allowed Kek to set the pace of their exploration of each other.

One afternoon, a storm arrived sudden and without warning. Ryo didn't notice the black clouds or gales until the museum lights started flicking on and off. It didn't worry him at first, but then the thought of Kek during a black out sent Ryo's heart jumping through his throat. He made an excuse, that he left his windows open and didn't want to ruin the carpet, and took half a sick day to go home early. Ryo dashed home. Rain poured down, flattening his long hair against his scalp. From across the street he noticed the black windows of his complex and finished his sprint to his own apartment.

Ryo burst through the door. Lightning flashed, whiting out the room before setting it back to dark. Kek sat on his normal square on the carpet. Instead of sunlight, Kek surrounded himself with candles and his flashlights. Their kiln gods sat in his lap like guardians. He looked up at Ryo with wide, lavender eyes. "I'm okay."

Ryo slammed the door shut and skidded to his knees in front of Kek, barely dodging a candle in the process. He grabbed Kek.

"I'm okay," he repeated.

Ryo ran his fingers through Kek's hair, kissing Kek's temples.

"Ryo, I'm okay."

"I can see that." Ryo chuckled, his hair dripping water over Kek's arms and into his clothes. "I guess I'm the one that needs comforting. I was so worried about how you'd handle the blackout that I almost gave myself a heart attack running here."

Kek grabbed both Ryo's shoulders. "You need to stop doing that. You always help everyone no matter how much you get hurt. Look at yourself. You're soaking wet. You're going to catch a cold. Would it have taken longer to grab your jacket?"

"I guess not. I just, I couldn't handle the thought of you upset."

Kek snorted, averting his eyes. "Maybe I screamed when the lights went off, but I had the flashlight around my neck so I dealt with it."

Ryo left one last, lingering kiss on Kek's forehead before he pulled away, touching the two kiln gods.

Kek looked down at them. "They remind me of us. It made me feel better having them close." He frowned at Ryo. "We need to get you out of those wet clothes or you really will get sick."

Ryo only shrugged.

"Idiot, come on." Kek lead them to the bathroom with his flashlight. He pulled the wet clothes from Ryo's body, plopping them on the tiles. When Ryo was down to his cotton boxer shorts, Kek rubbed him down with a large towel. A frustrated huff of sigh pushed it's way past Kek's mouth as he dried Ryo's hair. "You're such a mess."

Ryo laughed, feeling as if their roles had been reversed. "If the power was on I'd have you wash my hair – you owe me a few."

"Your hair would be even harder to wash in the tub than mine."

"True, we'd have to stand in the shower."

Kek snorted, teasing as he said, "I thought you told me that wasn't inappropriate."

Ryo realized that he had said something to that effect. Then he wondered how many times Kek tried to advance things further and Ryo's evasiveness, in trying to needlessly protect Kek, caused his own sexual frustration. Ryo gave Kek a nonchalant shrug. "We'll just wear swim trunks."

Kek pushed Ryo in the ribs hard enough for Ryo to take a step back. He laughed and Kek rolled his eyes and nudged towards the door with the beam of his flashlight. "Go to bed and I'll bring the candles."

"Oh?" Ryo grinned and raised a white eyebrow. "Are you going to take care of me tonight?"

Kek bit the corner of his lower mouth. "Guess I should. I owe you a few, right?"

Ryo brushed his shoulder against Kek as he passed him. In the bedroom, Ryo changed from his wet, cotton boxers to a dry, silky pair instead of his normal pajamas. His heart beat fast as he hid under the comforter and waited for Kek to return with the candles; it took Kek two trips to transfer everything to Ryo's room. Kek set each kiln god on either side of his flashlight which he set on the dresser to use as a lamp.

"You appreciate even the smallest lights when it's dark." Kek looked over his shoulder and watched Ryo who lay under the blankets covered to his chin. Kek turned and walked to the bed. "And some lights don't need batteries."

Ryo tilted his head.

"I'm talking about you, stupid. Gods, you're obtuse."

Ryo sighed, thinking of the months he'd been with Kek and all the wasted opportunities Ryo knew he should have taken but was always too worried to take. "Yeah, guess I am pretty dense."

Kek turned away from Ryo and changed into his pajamas. He usually did this in private, but when he stripped near the bed Ryo didn't say anything. He watched Kek's body in the flickering light of candles as Kek disrobed and slipped on a pair of pj pants. He clenched the blanket tighter at the sight of dark skin lit up by only small licks of yellow and orange.

"It's still early. Should we read?"

"Nah, maybe later," Ryo said.

Kek slipped under the covers. "Are you going to take a nap?"

"Probably."

"Oh," Kek said, sounding disappointed. "Maybe I'll try to take one too, so I can forget about the blackout."

"I'll wake up when it's time to make dinner. The lights should be back on by then."

"Or we can go out."

"Want to?"

Kek shrugged, looking wolfish. "I sold a lot of stuff this month. We can go somewhere nice."

"No." Ryo shook his head. "Let's go somewhere with good food instead."

Kek laughed. He took the moment to nudge closer to Ryo and sling an arm around Ryo's waist. Ryo noticed the way his eyes widened when he felt bare skin. "Are you . . . not wearing . . ."

"Boxers seemed easier." Ryo shrugged, letting the hem of the comforter slip down to show his bare shoulders. A wave of his older doubts and insecurities seized him. "I mean. Should I at least put on pajama bottoms?"

Kek shook his head. "I'm not going to tell you what to wear."

Ryo sighed. "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable."

"Sleep naked for all I care."

That made Ryo feel a little more confident. "Wouldn't that make back-rubs awkward?"

Kek snorted. "I think I've been through worse than the sight of your naked body."

"And I'm so white, you could bounce the flashlight beam off my ass and light up the whole room."

Kek bit the corner of his lip again, like he did in the bathroom. "If the lights don't come back on soon I might try it."

Ryo brushed hair away from Kek's face. "Are you still okay? It's getting darker outside."

Kek's eyes were dilated and bright and more concerned with Ryo than the light outside. He poked Ryo's ribs and grinned. "I'll distract myself by harassing you."

Ryo let his fingers trace down Kek's face with slow, light brushes. "What are friends for?"

Kek ran an experimental palm from Ryo's ribs to his waist and then hip. When he felt the material of the boxers he paused and smoothed his hand against the silk, curving back towards Ryo's ass to get a better feel of the material. "That's . . . smooth. Like your skin only a little more liquid."

Ryo grunted. He couldn't manage words with Kek's hand working the silk against Ryo's skin. Kek didn't stop, scooting an inch closer. "Wow that's smooth. I could do this all night long."

The sensation of silk and the pressure of Kek's hand mixed with his bright-half lidded eyes and the way Kek kept biting his lower lip, broke Ryo. With a rich, lusty moan he rolled on top of Kek, pressing Kek's chest with both his palms and sucking on Kek's bottom lip. His bottom lip felt supple against Ryo's mouth and he dabbed his tongue out for a quick taste of the soft skin.

Kek held his breath and closed his eyes. He froze, limbs sinking limp and heavy into the mattress. Ryo couldn't tell if this reaction was good or bad so he pulled away. "Shit. I'm sorry." Ryo tried to crawl out of bed but Kek sprung up, grabbing Ryo's waist and dragging him back to the center of the mattress. Upset, Ryo struggled and clawed at the sheets to stop Kek, but the other man was too strong and he couldn't move.

"No you don't." Kek growled in Ryo's ear. "You're not escaping this time."

"I shouldn't have done that." Ryo blurted out with his eyes cinched shut. He felt the heat of tears sting his eyes.

"Why not?" Kek screamed the question.

"Because." Ryo stopped struggling and looked away. "Our friendship is too important for me to fuck it up."

"Idiot. You damn idiot." Kek ground his teeth. "I've been trying to get you to kiss me for months."

"You're an idiot," Ryo screamed in Kek's face. "If you wanted to be kissed why didn't you ask me to kiss you?"

"Because our friendship is too important for _me _to fuck it up_. _Every time we started to get close you always made excuses or pushed me away so I wasn't sure if you felt the same way."

"I was trying to be polite."

"Ryo."

"What?"

"Shut-up, just – oh goddammit – will you just kiss me again before I scream?"

"Oh now you ask." Ryo snorted and then pushed Kek back down on the bed and kissed him. This time, Kek pushed his tongue into Ryo's mouth and they twined their tongues together. Ryo's damp hair fell down each side of his face and Kek had to brush the strands out of his eyes. Ryo's mouth watered. He pulled away to wipe saliva from the corners of his lips, licking them wet again and continuing to work his mouth against Kek's.

Kek tangled his fingers in Ryo's hair, pulling the strands of white ribbon as he hiked his hips against Ryo's groin. Ryo moaned into Kek's mouth, grinding down as Kek pushed up. One of Kek's hands freed itself from the tangle of Ryo's rain-damp hair and grabbed Ryo's ass, rubbing against the silk. Ryo moaned into Kek's mouth again.

Kek spoke into their kisses. "I'm glad the storm made you came home early."

"Got to love the _Dues ex Machina _moments in life."

They went for a third round of kissing. Ryo ran his hands over Kek's chest and abs, touching everything he'd been staring at for months. Kek's erection stretched past the hem of his pajama pants, and Ryo palmed the exposed head. Kek gasped and held Ryo's shoulders like they were the safety rail on a roller coaster.

"Ryo, if you stop, I might kill you."

"Hah." Ryo threaded his fingers beneath Kek's waistband and shimmied the sleepwear down to Kek's knees. Ryo stretched over to his nightstand and pumped a dollop of lotion into his palm. He took Kek's full length in his grip and continued where he left off. "You'll have to kill me to make me stop."

The longer hand strokes and the lotion made Kek grunt with pleasure. Ryo stopped again and went back to the drawer.

"Ryo," Kek growled.

Ryo grabbed something out of the drawer and crawled back on the bed. He kissed Kek's stomach a few times before curling his fingers around Kek's shaft and stroking a little slower than before.

Kek managed a noise between a moan and a growl as he clawed at the bedsheets. Stroking with his right hand, Ryo pulled Kek's pajamas down to his ankles and slipped the cotton past Kek's feet with his left hand. He pushed Kek's legs open. Ryo didn't have lube, but he did keep petroleum jelly in his drawer with the lotion. He dabbed some of his fingers into the thick gel; he used the middle finger to circle Kek's anus.

Kek moaned louder at Ryo's touch as Ryo's left hand still glided up and down Kek's shaft. When Ryo slipped his middle finger inside, Kek sucked in a sharp breath. He shifted onto his elbows to try and get a better look at Ryo. "Wh-what are . . . you—"

His sentence stopped when Ryo added his pointer finger and curved both up against the inner warmth of Kek's body. Kek shut his eyes and tilted his head back. His mouth opened wide as he exhaled quick, shallow breaths of air.

Ryo focused on what he was doing, but often stole glances at Kek's face and enjoyed how lost in the moment Kek looked. If the candles blew out and the flashlight died, Ryo didn't think Kek would notice. Lighting ignited the room with licks of white that faded back to shadows, but neither of them paid heed to the storm.

Kek clenched the sheets tighter, a strangled squeak left his throat. "I'm—"

He didn't make it past the first word, but he didn't have to. Ryo knew by the way Kek's erection pulsed and how his muscles gripped Ryo's fingers what was happening. Semen shot onto Kek's stomach. He sighed a final exhale and relaxed back onto the sheets; his chest rose and fell as he tried to compose himself. "When you're at work it takes much longer."

Ryo took a moment to register the comment and smirked. "Well, it's your own damn fault for building up so much tension between us."

"I was _trying_ to get you to kiss me," Kek growled out the words.

Ryo took tissue and cleaned the mess from his hands and Kek's skin. When finished, Ryo leaned over Kek and wiped the sweat from Kek's temples with the blade of his hand. Kek stared at Ryo. Ryo swallowed, his heart tittering in his chest from the intensity of Kek's gaze. Kek sat up and pushed Ryo to the mattress so that he lay posed over Ryo's body. He kissed Ryo's sternum. His mouth trailed to the scars on Ryo's chest. His lips brushed light, almost unperceived, over Ryo's skin. He shifted down, bringing his kisses lower, along Ryo's ribs and down the center of his stomach. Ryo breathed hard, holding onto Kek's shoulders as Kek's lips sent chills across his body.

He took Ryo's phallus in his hand, teasing the head with the tip of a callused thumb. Ryo squirmed a little, his hips wanting to move deeper into Kek's touch.

"I believe." Kek looked up at Ryo. "I promised to make you scream."

Ryo spoke in short breaths. "I was almost sure that was an innuendo, but you lost me at rod. I thought you were being facetious."

"You're just obtuse."

"You were too coy."

Kek laughed. "I was _not_ being coy."

"Then maybe I _was_ being thick."

Kek squeezed Ryo's erection. "Yes, you are."

"See, you're playing with language again."

"Oh, is it language that I'm playing with?"

"You're driving me insane."

"Madness has always been one of my specialties. Also torture." He bent down and nipped at Ryo's thigh.

Ryo gasped. Kek bit a little harder and Ryo pulled at Kek's hair. Kek chuckled as he pulled the boxers away from Ryo's body. He looked up at Ryo, at disheveled hair and lidded eyes. "Not even a little afraid?" he asked.

"Only that you'll stop."

Kek answered with a broad lick up Ryo's thigh and to the crease where his leg joined his hip. Ryo screamed a loud, long _oh_ at the sensation. Kek smiled. "Told you I'd make you scream."

"Kek, please stop teasing me."

"Is that begging I hear? Haven't lost my touch at all."

Ryo's voice was husky. "You really are a monster. You know that, right?"

"Good thing you like frightening and monstrous things."

"Good thing for _you_." Ryo pulled Kek's hair as hard as he could. "Your tormenting will be the death of me."

Kek kept his eyes on Ryo, between the frame of Ryo's arms. He planted kisses on his thighs and lower abdomen while ghosting his hand up and down Ryo's erection. "It would be the sweetest, most gentle death I ever gave."

Ryo's hair scattered over his cheeks and shoulders as he gave a playful shake of his head. "Ah, but one should not go gentle into that good night."

Kek smirked. "True, you should rage against the dying of the light."

Ryo raised an eyebrow. "You know that poem?"

"I've been reading your books."

Ryo smiled. "You always surprise me."

"It's fun to surprise you." Marik dropped down on Ryo's erection, lowering his mouth until his lips pressed against Ryo's pelvic area then sucked his way back to the tip.

Ryo cried out and doubled forward. The only reason he didn't ejaculate was because it felt so intense that it over-stimulated his brain and held his orgasm floating just out of reach. He lay there and twitched in Kek's mouth, helpless against the signals screaming through his body. As Kek continued, Ryo screamed his name so fast that it almost returned to it's original _kekeke _in Ryo's mouth.

Ryo came hard enough to press a tear out of the corner of each eye. His nerves couldn't keep up and Ryo felt skinned alive. Then his head crashed against the sheets and every muscle relaxed in the same instant. Kek curled beside Ryo and Ryo squeezed him hard into his arms as they drifted into sleep.

They fell asleep with only the flashlight on.

* * *

Ryo woke because of Kek's tossing. "Kek? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he whispered.

"Are the lights still off?"

Kek sighed. "Yeah."

Ryo sucked in a breath, trying to wake up but still drained from earlier. "I'm right here."

"Yeah. I'm fine."

Ryo opened his eyes and stroked Kek's hair. "You don't have to pretend that it doesn't bother you."

"It's . . . I was fine, but it's been too long." Kek frowned, stabbing the sheets with his finger.

Ryo leaned forward a gave him a comforting kiss on the lips. The soft, genuine kiss that Ryo had wanted to deliver to Kek's mouth since the first week he properly knew him. Kek focused his gaze on Ryo, his eyes still nervous, but he smiled.

Ryo got up and grabbed the flashlight from the dresser. He also found one of the spares that they kept in the bedroom. He handed one of the lights to Kek and lay beside him, flashing his own light at the ceiling. "Watch this." Ryo twisted his fingers in the light, the shadows merged into the shapes of animals.

"That's dumb." Kek snorted, but he mimicked Ryo's fingers to make his own puppets.

Ryo reached over, pretending the crude, shadow dog made from his fingers snapped at Kek's bird. Kek countered with his own attack. They had a mock battle which ended when Kek dropped his flashlight. He rolled on top of the other male and dug his fingers into Ryo's ribs.

Ryo kicked at Kek's legs and punched Kek's shoulder, but the added violence only made Kek laugh. Ryo squirmed beneath him. "Stop, oh please stop. I can't breath."

Kek didn't stop. "You're saying a lot for someone who can't breath."

"Stop, Kek, or I'll play dirty."

"Try. I don't see how, pinned down as you are."

Ryo wrapped his legs and arms around Kek and stole a kiss. Kek sighed into Ryo's mouth, his hands drew away from Ryo's ribs, instead sliding them behind Ryo's back. Ryo continued to suck at Kek's mouth and worked his hips against Kek until they were both hard. Kek pulled his mouth away as Ryo's hips hitched up in a slow, teasing rhythm. He panted in Ryo's ear. "That's . . . this . . . you're cheating."

"I warned you."

Kek grunted and started kissing Ryo's neck. Ryo tilted his head back to give Kek more room. He still slid their bodies together, his thighs squeezing Kek's frame.

"Ryo?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's skip dinner."

Ryo flipped Kek on his back, circling his hips against Kek's erection and leaning over to kiss his chest. "Sorry, I can't do that."

"Huh?"

"This was all to distract you while I escaped."

Kek raised his head a little. "What?"

Ryo jumped off of the bed. "Not pinned down anymore, am I?" Ryo grinned. "Now, didn't you say you'd take me out tonight? Let's go."

Kek pouted; the expression made his face look just as dangerous as when he laughed. "Now? I thought. You know, we were going to . . ." Kek blew out a frustrated mix of a sigh and groan. "You're as oblivious as ever."

"Not this time I'm not." Ryo flushed, from anticipation not embarrassment. "We can stop at the store on the way home."

"What do we need at the store?" Kek got up and started looking through his jeans for something to wear.

Ryo slipped his silk boxers back on. "You know, to pick up some basics; some new candles, maybe some proper massage oil . . . oh, and something slicker than lotion for when we go to bed for the night."

Kek stopped dressing to turn and give Ryo a questioning look. Ryo smiled as he watched the meaning of his words slowly dawn on Kek's face like the light of a new sunrise.

*****That's right, Ryo, make him take you to dinner first. *Sigh* I thought about adding another chapter, but it wouldn't go anywhere. It'd be "and they went out for sushi, had a lemon, and the next morning they ate breakfast and played mahjong. The end" and that would be kinda anticlimactic, so I'm just calling this done. ****Thanks for the reads and reviews everyone.*****


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